Allies in the work
There’s a moment in any serious project where you realize: the work is bigger than your fence line. Mama Kuku’s Homestead is now at a crossroads: African and Indigenous foodways, regenerative soil, slow culture, kids growing up with their hands in something real.
We aren’t the only ones tending this kind of fire. All over the world, there are foundations, funds, and alliances investing in soil, stories, health, and community power.
Below is a live list of allies in the work; funders whose stated priorities overlap with the world we’re trying to build.
Planetary Health & Conservation
These funders understand that protecting land, water, and species is inseparable from protecting people.
Arcadia Fund
Protects threatened ecosystems, rare species, and cultural heritage.
Why it matters: They step in where erasure (ecological and cultural) is happening in real time, not in theory.Gordon & Betty Moore Foundation (Environment)
Invests in oceans, forests, and ecosystem resilience through science and partnerships.
Why it matters: They fund the kind of deep, data-driven work that backs up what land stewards have been saying for generations.National Geographic Society
Supports explorers, conservationists, and storytellers around the globe.
Why it matters: They move stories and science into the global imagination, which is where norms actually shift.The Nature Conservancy (TNC)
Buys and protects land, restores habitats, and shapes conservation policy.
Why it matters: They bring large-scale conservation capacity into places where local communities are already fighting to hold on.Wildlife Conservation Society
Focuses on protecting species and wild places through science and community partnerships.
Why it matters: They remind the field that species survival and community survival are often the same struggle wearing different names.Earth Alliance / Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation
Backs biodiversity, Indigenous land defense, and climate justice work.
Why it matters: They use celebrity attention as a lever to highlight work that would otherwise stay invisible.Wyss Foundation
Funds permanent protection of wild landscapes at large scales.
Why it matters: They help move land out of speculation and into long-term stewardship.Rainforest Trust
Partners with local and Indigenous groups to safeguard threatened rainforests.
Why it matters: They respect that people closest to the land are the ones who should be resourced to care for it.David & Lucile Packard Foundation (Conservation & Science)
Invests in oceans, climate, and land conservation, grounded in science.
Why it matters: They support long horizon work; the kind of change that doesn’t fit neatly into election cycles.Conservation International
Works on climate, biodiversity, and community-based conservation globally.
Why it matters: They reinforce the idea that conservation that ignores local people is not conservation.Global Greengrants Fund
Regrants to grassroots environmental and Indigenous movements worldwide.
Why it matters: They channel resources directly into community hands instead of keeping them in boardrooms.National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF)
Co-funds large conservation and restoration projects with public and private partners.
Why it matters: They help translate big corporate and federal dollars into on-the-ground habitat work.The Ocean Foundation
Funds ocean conservation, blue carbon, and coastal resilience.
Why it matters: They remind us that “watershed” isn’t a metaphor; what we do on land flows downstream.Overbrook Foundation (Environment)
Supports biodiversity, climate action, and environmental justice.
Why it matters: They connect conservation to human rights instead of treating them as separate lanes.Turner Foundation
Funds wildlife, habitat protection, and sustainable communities.
Why it matters: They use private wealth to push back against the destruction that private wealth helped normalize.Pew Charitable Trusts: Environment
Invests in conservation, fisheries, and public lands policy.
Why it matters: They work at the policy scale where regulations and protections are written or erased.Climate and Land Use Alliance (CLUA)
A collaborative of major foundations funding forest, climate, and land rights work.
Why it matters: They recognize that climate, forests, and Indigenous land rights are one conversation, not three.
Regenerative Agriculture & Food Systems
These funders see soil, food, culture, and livelihoods as one system, not separate departments.
W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Centers children, food systems, and racial equity.
Why it matters: They understand that how we eat and how we raise kids cannot be untangled.Walton Family Foundation: Environment & Home Region
Supports sustainable water and farming across entire river basins.
Why it matters: They recognize that farmers can be both harmed by and key to solving climate disruption.Thornburg Foundation
Works on food and agriculture policy, hunger, and child wellbeing.
Why it matters: They focus on systems, not just charity — laws, incentives, and infrastructure.TomKat Ranch Educational Foundation
Centers regenerative grazing, soil health, and learning.
Why it matters: They treat a ranch as a laboratory, much like we treat our homestead as a learning field.Regenerative Agriculture Foundation
Funds U.S.-based regenerative agriculture transitions and farmer-led solutions.
Why it matters: They move money toward practices rooted in Indigenous and land-based wisdom.Funders for Regenerative Agriculture (FORA)
A collaborative of funders focused on scaling regenerative agriculture.
Why it matters: They coordinate philanthropic energy instead of scattering it in ten directions.The Rockefeller Foundation: Regenerative Agriculture Initiative
Invests in regenerative food systems, with attention to climate and health.
Why it matters: They bring global attention to practices small farmers have been refining for generations.Clif Family Foundation
Funds food systems, environment, and justice-oriented nonprofits.
Why it matters: They stand at the intersection of food business, soil, and community responsibility.Gaia Fund
Supports sustainable agriculture and environmental resilience.
Why it matters: They back work that understands the planet as a living, interconnected system.Schmidt Family Foundation / 11th Hour Project
Funds clean energy, food systems, and climate justice work.
Why it matters: They explicitly frame climate and food as justice issues, not just technical challenges.Kiss the Ground
Uses storytelling, education, and partnerships to catalyze regenerative agriculture.
Why it matters: They move public imagination and resources toward healthy soil as a climate solution.NoVo Foundation: Local Food & Community Power
Supports women, girls, and community-led healing, including land and food sovereignty.
Why it matters: They treat food systems as part of trauma recovery and power-building, not just nutrition.Newman’s Own Foundation
Funds nutrition, food access, and community-based food programs.
Why it matters: They reinvest commercial profit into community food resilience.Organic Farming Research Foundation
Supports farmer-driven research in organic and ecological methods.
Why it matters: They respect farmers as researchers, not just “beneficiaries.”Patagonia – Environmental Grants (Food & Farming)
Funds grassroots environmental and food justice efforts.
Why it matters: They channel a consumer brand’s profit into regenerative and protective work.AgroEcology Fund
Supports agroecology movements worldwide.
Why it matters: They back approaches rooted in local knowledge and farmer organizing.Food & Farm Communications Fund
Funds storytelling and narrative power in food and agriculture.
Why it matters: They know the story of who grows our food and how is part of the system itself.
Climate & Environmental Justice
These allies know climate is not just parts per million; it’s power, race, class, and history.
Kresge Foundation: Environment Program
Focuses on climate resilience and urban equity.
Why it matters: They center people most impacted, not just the easiest-to-fund projects.Surdna Foundation: Thriving Cultures & Inclusive Economies
Invests in BIPOC artists, economies, and environmental justice.
Why it matters: They treat culture as infrastructure, not window dressing.Libra Foundation
Funds front-line climate and social justice movements.
Why it matters: They put money where movement leadership already exists.JPB Foundation: Environment & Health
Backs environmental justice and community health work.
Why it matters: They acknowledge that pollution and illness follow the same zip codes.Pisces Foundation
Focuses on water, climate, and environmental education.
Why it matters: They understand that water connects every rural and urban community.Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
Frames health equity in connection with environment and systems.
Why it matters: They fill the gap between clinic-based health and land-based health.Robert Rauschenberg Foundation: Climate Justice
Funds creative and community-led climate work.
Why it matters: They resource artists as strategists in climate narratives, not just illustrators.Hewlett Foundation: Climate Initiative
Supports global climate mitigation efforts and policy.
Why it matters: They hold the line on large-scale emissions and policy while others work hyper-locally.Park Foundation
Funds water protection, media justice, and environmental advocacy.
Why it matters: They target both the pollution and the narratives that enable it.NorthLight Foundation
Supports climate, environmental justice, and community resilience.
Why it matters: They focus on communities on the frontlines of multiple overlapping crises.Climate Justice Resilience Fund
Funds women, youth, and Indigenous communities facing climate impacts.
Why it matters: They shift resources toward those who have contributed the least to the crisis and bear the most cost.Energy Foundation
Backs clean energy policy, advocacy, and equitable transitions.
Why it matters: They help communities push back on extractive energy systems.Climate Justice Alliance (CJA)
A network of organizations advancing a just transition.
Why it matters: They coordinate strategy, not just projects, so local wins add up to systemic change.Deep South Center for Environmental Justice
Trains Black communities in the Gulf Coast to address climate and environmental hazards.
Why it matters: They center the very families industrial systems decided were expendable.Indigenous Environmental Network
Advocates for Indigenous land, climate, and environmental rights globally.
Why it matters: They hold the spiritual and legal line on land defense.Grassroots International
Funds global movements for land, water, and food sovereignty.
Why it matters: They understand that climate justice without land justice is incomplete.Just Transition Fund
Supports communities transitioning away from coal and fossil economies.
Why it matters: They invest in the messy, human reality of shifting entire local economies, not just technologies.
Storytelling & Documentary Funds
These allies understand that who holds the camera and the mic shapes what becomes “truth.”
Sundance Institute Documentary Fund
Supports independent nonfiction with artistic and social impact.
Why it matters: They open space for stories that don’t fit the usual gatekeeper templates.Firelight Media
Funds and mentors Black and Brown nonfiction filmmakers.
Why it matters: They safeguard narrative power in communities usually stuck in front of the lens, not behind it.Catapult Film Fund
Provides early development support to documentary projects.
Why it matters: They fund the risky beginning stage when a story is still forming and easiest to smother.IDA Enterprise Documentary Fund
Backs investigative and character-driven feature docs.
Why it matters: They help complex, systemic stories reach audiences without being flattened.Doc Society: Climate Story Unit
Supports climate storytelling grounded in community realities.
Why it matters: They keep climate narratives from becoming abstract, technical wallpaper.National Geographic Storytelling Fund
Invests in photographers, writers, and filmmakers across cultures.
Why it matters: They give global reach to hyperlocal stories — the kind MKH embodies.Perspective Fund
Funds documentaries and organizations tackling social justice issues.
Why it matters: They understand films as part of organizing ecosystems, not standalone art objects.JustFilms: Ford Foundation
Supports artist-driven storytelling to challenge inequality.
Why it matters: They treat storytelling as infrastructure for justice work.Black Public Media
Funds and broadcasts Black-led media projects.
Why it matters: They hold dedicated space for Black narratives in public media.Chicken & Egg Pictures
Funds women and nonbinary documentary filmmakers.
Why it matters: They support voices that patriarchal funding has systematically sidelined.Bertha Film Fund
Supports films that challenge power and injustice.
Why it matters: They explicitly back storytelling that provokes change, not comfort.SFFILM Rainin Grants
Funds narrative films with social justice themes.
Why it matters: They recognize fiction can carry truth in ways policy papers never will.Pare Lorentz Documentary Fund (IDA)
Supports feature docs focused on social and environmental issues.
Why it matters: They honor a legacy of filmmaking that educates and agitates.ITVS: Open Call
Funds public television documentaries in the U.S.
Why it matters: They bring independent stories into living rooms that rarely see themselves reflected.POV / Independent Lens (PBS)
Support and broadcast independent nonfiction films.
Why it matters: They keep long-form, nuanced stories alive in mainstream media.CatchLight Global Fellowship
Funds photographers using visual storytelling for social change.
Why it matters: They treat photography as a tool for community self-definition.Logan Nonfiction Program
Supports long-form journalists and nonfiction storytellers.
Why it matters: They give time and space: the two things complex stories actually require.
Science & Innovation / Explorers
These allies fund curiosity, experimentation, and tools that can serve communities if guided well.
National Geographic Explorers Program
Funds scientists, innovators, and storytellers doing field-based work.
Why it matters: They blur the line between lab, landscape, and lived experience.Schmidt Futures
Supports talent and ideas in science, technology, and society.
Why it matters: They fund frontier thinking that doesn’t neatly fit existing boxes.Lemelson Foundation
Invests in invention-based social enterprises.
Why it matters: They treat inventors as agents of social change, not just patent machines.Simons Foundation: Science Sandbox
Backs public engagement with science.
Why it matters: They understand science isn’t complete until communities can work with it.Templeton World Charity Foundation
Funds scientific and social inquiry into human flourishing.
Why it matters: They create room for questions that mix science, culture, and meaning.Moore Inventor Fellows
Supports early-career inventors solving big environmental and social challenges.
Why it matters: They back people whose ideas don’t yet have a standard funder home.Alfred P. Sloan Foundation
Funds research and public understanding of science and technology.
Why it matters: They care about both the work and how it’s communicated.Google.org: AI & Climate / AI for Social Good
Supports data-driven tools for climate, health, and justice.
Why it matters: They help put technical capacity in the hands of people doing real-world work.Autodesk Foundation
Funds design-led climate and resilience solutions.
Why it matters: They recognize that design is a form of systems thinking, not just aesthetics.Wellcome Trust: Climate & Health
Invests in research linking climate and public health.
Why it matters: They bridge two systems that institutions usually silo.Howard Hughes Medical Institute: Tangled Bank Studios
Funds science storytelling and films.
Why it matters: They treat science communication as part of the scientific ecosystem.XPRIZE Foundation
Designs large-scale prizes to spur innovation on global problems.
Why it matters: They create incentives for moonshot solutions that small grants can’t reach.TED Audacious Project
Aggregates big donors around bold, scalable ideas.
Why it matters: They align major philanthropy behind projects with the courage to think beyond pilots.MacArthur Foundation: Climate & 100&Change
Funds large, systemic solutions to climate and social challenges.
Why it matters: They are one of the few willing to fund “change the system” scale work.Chan Zuckerberg Initiative: Science
Supports tools, open science, and disease research with a systems lens.
Why it matters: They push for scientific infrastructures that could also support ecological and public health work.Bloomberg Philanthropies: Environment
Funds climate action, sustainable cities, and public health.
Why it matters: They use data and policy leverage to push structural environmental change.
Youth, Education & Community Science
These allies believe that kids, teachers, and neighbors are central in climate work.
Bezos Earth Fund: Youth & Climate Initiatives
Supports youth-led and community-centered climate action globally.
Why it matters: They put large-scale resources behind the generations who will live with the outcomes.NSF: Advancing Informal STEM Learning (AISL)
Funds museums, community orgs, and informal educators.
Why it matters: They recognize that most meaningful science learning doesn’t happen in classrooms.Annenberg Foundation
Supports education, civic engagement, and creative learning.
Why it matters: They back learning spaces that don’t look like traditional schools.LEGO Foundation
Invests in learning through play and hands-on exploration.
Why it matters: They legitimize curiosity, tinkering, and experimentation as real intelligence.Captain Planet Foundation
Funds youth-led environmental projects and school-based programs.
Why it matters: They give kids direct responsibility for projects, not just worksheets.NewSchools Venture Fund: Racial Equity & Innovation
Supports education entrepreneurs centering Black and Brown communities.
Why it matters: They help new learning models emerge where old ones have failed.Teton Science Schools
Develop place-based education models and partnerships.
Why it matters: They treat place (land, community, history) as a primary textbook.National Environmental Education Foundation (NEEF)
Leads environmental learning and outdoor engagement efforts nationwide.
Why it matters: They help normalize environmental literacy as a basic skill, not a niche hobby.AAAS: Community Science Programs
Supports communities using science to answer their own questions.
Why it matters: They invert the usual direction of expertise: community first, institution second.American Museum of Natural History: Education Programs
Offers youth, teacher, and community science programs.
Why it matters: They turn a major museum into a living classroom.EPA Environmental Education Grants
Funds environmental education at schools and nonprofits.
Why it matters: They bring federal support into local learning spaces.YLACES (Youth Learning as Citizen Environmental Scientists)
Funds youth doing real environmental science projects.
Why it matters: They treat students as contributors to knowledge, not just consumers.Johnson Ohana Foundation
Funds environmental and arts education for youth.
Why it matters: They blend creativity, environment, and youth leadership.The Russell Family Foundation: Environmental Education
Supports youth outdoor and environmental learning.
Why it matters: They help kids build a real relationship with land and water instead of just reading about it.NAAEE (North American Association for Environmental Education)
Provides mini-grants, fellowships, and capacity building in environmental education.
Why it matters: They support the educators who quietly shape how thousands of students see the world.Children & Nature Network
Offers grants and support for nature-based education and community design.
Why it matters: They push back against the idea that kids belong indoors and disconnected from earth.
Be sure to check in …
We will update this list periodically.
